294 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



though a few pairs are still known to breed each summer on some of the least fre- 

 quented Scottish lakes. But the secret of these localities is jealously guarded by the 

 possessors, as the eggs are among the most coveted prizes of the British collector, and 

 no hardship is too great to be endured in obtaining them. 



In Europe this species usually nests on cliffs or rocky islets in fresh-water lakes, 

 rarely on trees, while in America precisely the reverse is true of it. The eggs are 

 from two to four usually three generally so heavily blotched with deep brown 

 and red as almost to hide the lighter ground-color. The European bird is rather 

 smaller than the American, and there is a corresponding difference in the size of 

 the egg. 



The food of the osprey consists almost entirely of fish, which it catches for itself, 

 usually by a headlong plunge. I am not aware that any particular species is pre- 

 ferred, but the smaller sizes are undoubtedly oftenest captured. It is said that occa- 

 sionally an osprey miscalculates the size of its prey, and strikes its talons into a fish 

 which it is unable to manage in which case, being unable to withdraw them [?], it is 

 ignominiously drowned. The pictures, therefore, which one often sees, representing 

 this bird seated triumphantly on a dead salmon of a weight apparently of fifteen or 

 twenty pounds, which it has incidentally transported to a convenient mountain-top, 

 are presumably artistic licenses, not photographs. 



The long and closely feathered tibia, the reversible outer toe, long and peculiar 

 claws, and roughened soles, seem perfectly adapted for effective fishing; and when we 

 add to this the strength of wing, compactness of plumage, and remarkable power of 

 sight possessed by this bird, we must admit that here is indeed a " complete angler " 

 in one volume. 



The harriers, Circinse, form a small group of slender, graceful, non-arboreal Falcon- 

 idre, which may be further described as having the bill rather weak, without any 

 notch, but with the tomia usually strongly sinuate. The legs are long and rather 

 weak, the tarsus about as long as the tibia, unfeathered, and scutellate both in front 

 and behind ; the toes are rather short, and the claws, though of no great size, are very 

 sharp; the wings and tail are long, the former straight and but slightly concave, thus 

 giving an easy, gliding flight which the birds seem able to keep up indefinitely, or at 

 least until they strike something worth stopping to eat ; the plumage is soft and loose, 

 and the face has an imperfect ruff, which faintly suggests the owls. 



The sub-family consists essentially of the genus Circus, which is probably indivi- 

 sible into larger groups than species. Of these there are from ten to twenty, at 

 present we have not the material to say with certainty how many there may be. Usu- 

 ally the sexes are unlike in color (quite unusual among Falconida?) and size, the 

 females being larger and darker; and the young also differ materially from the adults, 

 though in a general way resembling the females. Add to this the wide range of some 

 species, with. the resultant climatic variation, and the determination of species becomes 

 a problem of no ordinary difficulty. 



North America has but one species, the marsh hawk or harrier, Circus cyan,eus 

 (Jmdsonius), now considered to be a mere geographical race of the common hen- 

 harrier, Circus cyaneus, of Europe. The North American form is abundant in suita- 

 ble localities ; that is, rather flat open country, from the Arctic circle to Panama, 

 southwaixl from which point, as far as La Plata, it is replaced in similar situations by 

 a larger and totally different species, C. maculosus, when we again meet with a variety 

 of cyaneus slightly smaller, perhaps, than the northern form, yet doubtless specifi- 



